Quite Possibly
by VoldieandtheDeathMunchers
Summary: /Written for Dexion Day./ Zexion believes he hasn't got any family left. His friends prove him wrong. Dexion, mentions of Cleon, AkuRoku, Soriku


**Happy Dexion Day! I actually wrote this for Zemyx day back in June, but never bothered to actually type it up... I'm really lazy. I'm quite pleased with the way it came out, though, late or not. Enjoy!**

**Thanks very much to Shugotenshii for betaing this. You're the best, twin!**

*~*

The day I received the call from my uncle Auron was quite possibly the worst day of my life. Well, no it wasn't. The day my older brother Zack died was the worst day of my life. He was the only true family I had left. He took care of me after our parents were killed, and when he was gone… well, things simply weren't the same.

Uncle Auron isn't my real uncle. He had been a close friend of my father's when he was alive, so official guardianship fell to him until Zack turned eighteen. He supported us until Zack found a steady job, and even then he still sent us money every month. After the crash that killed Zack, he once again began to support me. He didn't live with me, preferring to stay in Spira, a rural town maybe fifty kilometres from Hollow Bastion, where I live.

Things were tough for awhile, but I had my friends. They got me through the grief and the academic slump following. Axel Sinclair and his older brother Reno made sure I ate and came over often to check on me. The Strife brothers, Cloud, the oldest, and Roxas and Sora, the twins who were my age, tutored me until I was once again acing my tests. My other friends were incredibly supportive as well, and they were what I relied on to keep me sane… which now that I consider who my friends are, is actually rather oxymoronic.

And then there was Demyx. Demyx McClellan, my best friend since we met on the playground at age six. Demyx, the crazy musician who never went anywhere without some sort of instrument. Idiotic, oblivious, _beautiful_ Demyx who I was completely and utterly in love with. He was there next to me, holding my hand at my parents funeral when I was nine and he cried with me at the hospital five years later, exactly five months after Zack took legal custody of me. I couln't imagine life without him.

That was a year ago. I'm fifteen now, and not much has changed since then. We've gained a few more friends since people are always moving to Hollow Bastion, but everything is fundamentally the same. Except now, Auron's cutting me off.

"I'm sorry Zexion, but I've been laid off and I have my own family to think of. You'll be alright, won't you?" his deep gravelly voice sounded positively satanic through the phone, but that was probably just my overactive imagination. Honestly, it was a wonder I could sleep at night.

"Y-yeah," I responded, too shocked to give a real response.

"Good. See you around."

And then the line went dead.

I sat down numbly at the kitchen table of my tiny apartment, horrified. How was I going to get by? I'd need to work multiple jobs, and I didn't even want to think how my school life would suffer. This was something I didn't think my friends, as great and wonderful as they were, could help me with_. So,_ I thought, _I just won't tell them. _Making that decision was quite possibly the worst mistake of my life.

*~*

"Hey, Zexy!" Axel shouted cheerfully from where he was practically wrapped around Roxas. I smiled lightly as I approached the usual spot, a corner of the school building where we met everyday after school. Larxene and Namine, Demyx's older sisters were there, as well as Leon, a senior. I moved to stand near Demyx and as far away as I could get from Larxene. She's always hated me for some reason, and I've found it's easier to just steer clear of her. Namine, however, I liked. She was more like Demyx than her sister and actually quite a sweet girl. Axel, Larxene, and Namine are all a year ahead of us, so I didn't see them as often as some of my other friends. We were just waiting for a few more people to join us before heading off to get pizza like usual. They arrived soon enough. Cloud, also a senior, beelined for Leon, where he was greeted by a light peck on the lips. They had been together for nearly two years now and Naminé was already proclaiming she would be Cloud's maid of honour at the wedding. Sora and Riku followed him, holding hands, their best friend Kairi next to them.

"Sorry we're late, I had to run to my locker," Sora laughed and we all laughed with him before setting out.

Days passed. Everything was just the same as always, but there was a heavy weight hanging over me. I found a few jobs, but I knew they wouldn't be enough. Rent was expensive and sooner or later I'd have to pay it. I stopped coming to school every day in order to work and I told my friends it was because of family problems, but I'm not sure they believed me. Either way, they left it alone. I think they had the feeling I didn't want them involved, and for that I was grateful. It was sort of intuition, or best-friend-telepathy, I guess. After knowing each other for so long, they just sort of knew.

In any case, things for all of us only went downhill from there. My grades plummeted. Where once I had straight A's, I now had C's and D's. It was becoming increasingly harder to dodge nosy counsellors and it began to be that I was spending more time working than at school.

Adding to my exhaustion was the fact that I could no longer sleep at night. I'd recently become plagued by migraines and terrible nightmares of falling into an endless abyss with some unnameable terror at the bottom, forgotten instantly upon waking but the fear still lingered.

And then we heard the news. After a long, painful battle with cancer, Axel and Reno's mother had passed away, leaving them a heartbroken father. The woman had been like a second mother to all of us, and we all took it hard. I barely managed to reschedule my shift at Mooglemart in time for the funeral, which was to be held in two days. My boss, an intimidating man named Seifer, was thoroughly displeased and promptly docked my pay. I cried a lot that week. We all did. I don't think any of us could believe she was really gone. It took me two weeks to finally be able to look Axel in the face again: he was the very image of his mother.

Miss Gainsborough, one of the school counsellors had been trying to get me into her office for at least a month before that. It was extremely hard to avoid her, and as I discovered, quite impossible. She cornered me in the library during my study one Thursday morning.

"We need to talk, sweetie," she said firmly. I sighed, pushing down the nausea that had become the norm and stood from the uncomfortable wooden chair I'd been sitting in. I followed her down the corridor.

Miss Gainsborough closed the door behind us when we reached her small office. I took a seat in the chair by her desk, absentmindedly grabbing a stress ball from the basket on her desk and playing with it.

"Zexion, your teachers tell me you haven't been in school much lately. Is something going on I should know about?"

I quickly thought up a half lie.

"I recently got a job and my uncle hasn't been doing well lately. Everything's fine," I told her. She pursed her lips and gave me a disbelieving look, but thankfully didn't press the matter further.

"Alright… but remember, if you need to talk, I'm right here, okay?"

I nodded, putting the stress ball back and leaving as quickly as I could. I was surprised she let me go so easily, but I wasn't about to question my luck. Sighing, I headed to my locker to dump my books. For some reason, I didn't think I was going to get much studying done.

*~*

I groaned painfully as I struggled with the task of getting my books in my locker. Even the simplest things had become a hardship lately. And by the time I was finished, I swayed where I stood. I took a few stumbling steps before I spotted Axel. I pulled myself straight with another groan; it wouldn't do to have him worrying about me, really. I smiled and nodded at him, but cried inwardly when he came to a stop in front of me. Unconsciously lifting a hand to wipe my brow of its sheen of sweat, I did my best to appear cheerful.

"H- hey, Ax," I managed , discreetly steadying myself against the row of lockers behind me.

"Hey," he replied, "you don't look too good, are you sick?

"No," I lied through my teeth, "I'm fine. Just a bit tited."I smile again weakly and began to walk away but I hadn't gone more than five steps before I felf my legs give out. Blackness took me before I even hit the ground. The last theing I knew was Axel's voice shouting my name.

*~*

I slowly became aware of the faint sound of beeping and a weird, floaty feeling, like I was in bed, although my groggy mind didn't register what it meant. I forced my eyes open against harsh fluorescent lighting and looked down. All I could see was an ugly, vomit coloured blanket and two blonde heads. My nose started to once again communicate with my brain and I registered a sterile, antiseptic-like scent. _Hospital, _I thought putting two and two together, _damn._

I wiggled my fingers experimentally and found someone was holding my hands. Some_ones_, I corrected myself, looking at the heads again. One was a lighter blonde than the other, which had more of a brownish straw-tone to it. I squeezed the hands holding mine tightly, causing the first head to look up with a start, revealing itself to be Roxas. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with his free hand, then looked and me and broke into a grin.

"You're awake!" he exclaimed, "I mean, really awake!"

I looked at him in confusion and his smile dropped.

"You… understand me, right…?" he looked unsure and almost frightened.

"Of… course," I rasped out, my throat dry as if from disuse. His bright blue eyes lit up again and the grin came back.

"Do you know where you are?" he asked me. I shook my head, swallowing painfully. He seemed to realise this through our friend-telepathy and bent to get something on the floor. He came up with a water bottle, unscrewing the cap quickly and pressing it to my lips. One of his hands moved behind my head to support it and I drank greedily, grateful for its soothing effect on my throat. He pulled the bottle away far too soon and I make a noise of protest. "You can have more in a minute," he said, and I nodded obediently. "You're in the hospital, Zex. After you collapsed at school, the nurse called an ambulance. You had a dangerously high fever and you were delirious-- you didn't know who any of us were. And you kept calling for… well, you were shouting for Zack."

He paused to let me take this new information in. I looked at him, then back down at the second head and realised with a start it was Demyx. Roxas followed my gaze and gave a sad little laugh.

"He's been a real wreck, you know. Hasn't left your side once since you were admitted and he gives the nurses a lot of trouble when visiting hours end. The limit is two visitors at a time, so we set up a shift system to watch over you guys-- mostly just to make sure he eats. Axel can barely get him into school half the time; he usually ends up ditching and coming here." He checked his watch and wrinkled his nose like he always did when he was thinking.

I was beyond confused. Roxas was talking like I had been here for awhile, but that couldn't be right. I'd only passed out for a bit, nothing serious. My confusion must have shown on my face, because Roxas frowned and said,

"Zexion, you've been in the hospital for almost a month. It's June already."

I stared at him in shock. How could this have happened? I knew I was sick, yeah, but it wasn't anything so bad. Roxas sighed and I looked at him.

"We know what's going in, Zex. Cloud found the papers when he went to get your stuff from your apartment. We know Auron cut you off and we know you're working two jobs just to eat," he stated bluntly and I winced at how bad it sounded when he said it, "You pushed yourself nearly to death, and we were all really scared-- we still are." He paused a minute before standing. "Larxene's turn is in five minutes, so I'm going to go find a doctor."

"Wait-- Larxene is here? But _why?_" I asked incredulously. He sighed again.

"I told you, Zexion, we're worried. All of us."

And then he left. I stared after him in shock. The only thing that broke the awful silence was the beeping of the machines around my and Demyx's slow, steady breathing. The former threatened to drive me insane, but the latter offered some strange, incomprehensible feel of comfort. It continued like that for a few minutes, the madness and the comfort, until the door was yanked violently open and an all-too-familiar blonde marched in. She plopped herself down in the chair Roxas had vacated.

"Roxy-dearest said you were awake. How ya feeling?" she asked in a display of more compassion than I'd ever witnessed from her.

"O-okay, I guess," I told her, more out of habit than the actual truth. In reality, my head was pounding, my whole body ached, and nausea threatened to overcome me. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Larxene was not that stupid. She gave me one of her looks and I caved. "Like shit," I amended. This seemed to satisfy her and I glanced out the window. The sky was dark and overcast and there wasn't enough light for me to tell if it was night or day.

"What time is it?" I asked her. She glanced briefly at the clock on the wall. It was one of those white plastic analogue ones with the annoying second hand that just sort of glides along instead of actually telling the seconds.

"It's about seven thirty in the evening," Larxene said, pushing her shockingly unstyled hair behind one ear. It hung limp and straight around her shoulders, and looked like it hadn't seen gel in ages. I noticed all of a sudden that she had dark bags under her eyes and she was dressed in an old, rumpled t-shirt and a pair of stained jeans. I came to the startling realization that Roxas had been in much the same state. He hadn't been bluffing.

"There're all out there, you know," she said quietly, so uncharacteristically I almost looked around the room to see if there was another person in the room. She wouldn't quite meet my eyes and her hands fidgeted in her lap. "You don't have to go through this alone." She broke off and looked at me, seemingly having composed herself. She glared at me all of a sudden.

"I don't know what the hell your problem is or why you seem to think you can't trust us! You claim you've got no family now that Zack's gone, but you don't realize how fucking much we care about you. I know I haven't been the kindest to you in the past, but we're your family now-- the Strifes and the McClellans and the Sinclairs and the Leonhearts and everybody in between. I just-- aagh! I'm no good at this touchy-feely shit." She tugged tugged on her hair angrily, then turned and began to leave. Slamming open the door, she shouted, "I'm going for a smoke!" before disappearing entirely.

I refused to let the tears that had gathered in my eyes fall.

Roxas walked in just then with a tall, middle-aged doctor with a goatee strangely reminiscent of Luxord's and long blonde hair.

"Hello Mr. Fair," he said, "I'm Dr. Ansem von Weiss. You might know my son, Luxord, I believe you have some classes with him."

I nodded. He smiled at me and pulled out a small flashlight before shining it in both of my eyes and writing something down on his clipboard. He continued to look me over, checking my temperature with an ear thermometer.

"Well, you seem to be doing a bit better. I'll come back in a few hours to see if you feel up to eating. If you need anything, just call one of the nurses."

I moved to shift my legs, reminding me that Demyx was still there. I stroked his hair gently, in awe that he could sleep through his sister's shouting. A small, fond smile crossed my lips and Roxas mirrored it.

"He hasn't slept in days, you know. He's so scared that if he falls asleep, when he wakes up, you'll be gone."

I laughed a little at that.

"Stupid. I'm not going anywhere."

Roxas raised an eyebrow.

"He's not the only one. You scared a lot of people who really care about you Zexion. I only heard a little bit of Larx's rant, but she's right. We're your family now, whether you like it or not." He was smiling, but his tone was serious. I nodded, a little tired of hearing the same words over and over, but I knew he was right. And right then, I felt an emotion I hadn't felt in a long time: guilt. Guilt over making them worry, guilt that Demyx was in such bad shape, guilt for letting myself get this bad.

"I-I'm sorry," I choked out. Roxas looked startled.

"Don't be. But if you feel you absolutely must apologise, apologise to him. I'm going to send the others in, the doc says it's okay to have more than two visitor at a time now you're awake."

He left then and it was all I could do not to just sob.

They came in threes and fours, so many more than I had actually expected: Cloud, Sora, Naminé, Leon, Yuffie, Axel, Reno, Kairi, Riku, even Marluxia came to laugh at me, the bastard. They each had the same story as Roxas and Larxene. I was exhausted by the time they had all left. However, there was one person who had come back, it seemed. I looked up from where my hands were stroking Demyx's hair again, startled as Larxene opened the door and closed it quietly. Most of the others were long gone, only Cloud, Roxas, and Axel had stayed for the last few shifts of the night. She looked wearier than before and I was immediately on my guard. Although I admittedly deserved the first one, I didn't want another outburst. I scratched absentmindedly at the tape holding my IV line down, only to have her slap my hand away.

"Don't do that, you'll rip it out," she snapped. I thought it best to just nod demurely and let her say whatever she'd come here to say. I wasn't disappointed. "Look. If you hurt my baby brother one more time, intentionally or otherwise, I won't hesitate to mess you up. You're oblivious, emo-boy, but that's no excuse. Demyx cares about you more than anything in the world, so don't you dare go breaking his heart."

I stared in shock for what felt like the fiftieth time that day as she fished a rubber band out of her pocket and threw her hair back in a low ponytail.

"What… what do you mean…?" I half whispered wide eyed. She gave me one of her 'Oh my god, are you completely stupid?' glares, but I didn't back down. She sighed.

"He's been in love with you for ages, you idiot."

I felt like I couldn't breathe. Demyx… loved me? He had for ages? Tears once again formed in my eyes, but I blinked them back. If he had… but then--

"Why didn't he ever say anything?"

"Demyx was terrified that you would reject him if he confessed. He told me once that he would rather remain friends with you forever than lose you for good."

"Oh, _Demyx…_" I whispered, my hands returning to their stroking. I jumped about a foot when he stirred suddenly and yawned, cerulean eyes opening slowly. He blinked a few times, glancing at Larxene before turning to gaze at me. My eyes met his and his mouth opened in a small 'o', eyes filling with tears.

"Zexion….?" he whispered, disbelieving. Larxene stood.

"I'll leave you two to catch up," she said, glaring at me once more before shutting the door behind her.

I looked at him closely. Tears threatened to spill down his cheeks, his hair hung as limp as his sister's and his face was gaunt as if he hadn't been eating regularly. I reached a hand out to stroke his cheek gently and he flinched at the contact. My hand came away wet with tears.

"You never said anything… how could I have known? You never said anything…" I repeated over and over. Demyx looked confused and reached his hand to cover mine. I quieted.

"Zexion," he said again, and I knew what was coming. Barely a moment passed before he was sobbing in my arms. No words were exchanged while I held him, and none needed to be. It was that best friend telepathy again, and I was grateful for it. He stayed in my arms until the sobbing died down, and then he looked at me. His eyes were puffy and red and his cheeks were tearstained, but I still thought he was the most beautiful creature I had ever laid eyes on. Impulsively, I leaned in and kissed him. When I pulled back, he was staring at me, shocked. I smiled gently.

"You never said anything."

He lunged. Demyx attacked my lips fiercely, and I responded in kind, opening my mouth in a gasp when I felt his tongue sweep across my lower lip. It invaded my mouth, gliding against my own in a slick joust and I let out a happy sigh. We broke apart all too soon, panting.

"Zexion…" Demyx said a third time, but this time it was followed by more, "I think that was quite possibly the best kiss I've ever had."

"It think that was quite possibly the only kiss, you've ever had, Dem." I grinned, resting my forehead against his, and I nearly felt my heart melt at his answering smile. He giggled.

The day I woke up in the hospital was quite possibly the best day of my life.


End file.
